Paul Ryan Details Plan to Combat Poverty

In a tone decidedly different from Donald Trump, Speaker Paul Ryan began to lay out his new plan for “a more inclusive, a more inspiring, a more confident America” by unveiling the GOP plan for raising people out of poverty.

In his weekly address Friday, Ryan laid out the plan in broad strokes, and on Tuesday, he traveled to House of Help City of Hope in the Washington, D.C., neighborhood of Anacostia to more specifically detail his plan with a 35-page report.

“Instead of trapping people in poverty, we can get them on the ladder of opportunity, reward work, open our economy so everyone can make the most of their lives,” he said in his weekly address.

• Instituting work requirements for welfare recipients and for recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps, who are able to work;
• Consolidating or streamlining 18 federal food-assistance programs and myriad housing programs, such as the Rural Housing Service rental assistance program and HUD’s Housing Choice voucher program;
• Streamlining federal funding for at-risk youths and for 45 separate early childhood programs and giving states and local governments more flexibility to address their residents’ needs;
• Rolling back federal requirements and regulations for technical education programs and for colleges and universities, which one study commissioned by Vanderbilt University last year estimated cost schools $27 billion annually. The plan also recommends consolidating the nine federal-aid programs for higher education into three.
• Making it easier for businesses to team up and offer joint 401(k) plans.

The recommendations come from the GOP “Task Force on Poverty, Opportunity, and Upward Mobility,” one of six task forces assigned to tackle the issues of national security, tax reform, reducing regulatory burdens, health care reform, and restoring constitutional authority, in addition to poverty.

The six-part plan is called A Better Way, and Ryan plans to roll it out through June. It aims to bring Republicans together to fight for the party’s causes.

“Let’s face it: people know what Republicans are against,” Ryan said. “Now, we are giving you a plan that shows you what we are for.”

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Sheena McFarland has worked in the communication field for more than a decade. She currently is a communications specialist for The University of Utah David Eccles School of Business, telling the stories of students, faculty and staff through traditional and new media. She continues to freelance for The Salt Lake Tribune, where she was a reporter and editor, covering topics ranging from education to government to astronomy. She graduated from the University of Utah with a communication degree and minors in French and biology teaching.